The Colour Green
by Nuit Songeur
Summary: It's common knowledge that very few are excluded from the magnetic pull of Seto Kaiba's physical appearance. The new, green-eyed student of Domino High is no exception as she eagerly follows after him, hoping that what she has is enough to woo the CEO.
1. New Girl

**A/N: **I've had this written up for a while now but haven't gotten to posting it until to now because I apologize sincerely to all of my readers that I haven't updated as I should. I'm really trying to work on that but I've been really busy. And I swear it's not just procrastination. But, I would have waited longer to post this because I wanted to make it several chapters longer and I wanted to finish one of my multi-chaptered fics before I got around to doing another one. But, as it stands, this story will be seen as 'completed,' however, feel free to subscribe because, once I've got time in the future, I will add on to this.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh.

**Warnings:** Typos. And, slight Season 5 spoilers.

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**_The Colour Green_  
**By: Nuit Songeur

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Green is, supposedly, the color most pleasing to the human eye. Though, it doesn't necessarily have to be a favorite- it's the one that doesn't give off negative connotations.

Or, so they say. Whoever _they_ were. Mana wasn't entirely sure. She'd read the simple fact in a health magazine promoting an emerald necklace while waiting for her grandmother's doctor's appointment to be finished. According to this mysterious _they_, emeralds were suppose to have been the most prized possession of the famous Cleopatra, because of their green color.

Mana wasn't fully informed on the subject; she was just happy to have green eyes. The good green kind- not the green that could be mistaken for blue or was so light that it _was_ blue. No, this green was a deeper, more richer green. The color of pure emeralds. And she was happy to have pretty eyes- ones that shone with a natural curiosity and intuition. It made a lot of people think she was smart, book smart to say the least. Even though, in reality, she struggled a lot with simple common sense.

Her hair, however, was another story entirely. An ugly, dusky brown with no luster, impossibly frizzy, and unmanageable to the extreme. Just simply, terrible. She supposed that her hair made her look smart as well, if you judged by the typical nerdy girl look, the ones with frizzy hair, thick rimmed glasses, and bad acne. Thankfully, Mana didn't have any of that. With the exception of the hair, of course. To the very minimum, she could say she had pretty clear, pale skin and eyesight good enough that wasn't in need of extraneous glasses to hide her eyes, her shiny green eyes.

Though, of course, when she had moved into the city of Domino and attended the local high school, she was unsure of which of these traits of hers seemed to call upon the attention of four certain people. Four people with the kind faces Mana needed on her first day there. They were extremely nice to her and treated Mana as if she was one of their own. But then, a word was brought into the conversation: card. Then, they started getting into this animated talk about this new card game everyone was into lately. Duel Monsters, Mana thought it was called.

The shortest- and possibly youngest- of the boys gave her an extremely curious gaze and she returned the favor, cocking her head to the side and arching an eyebrow. This boy, who Mana thought his name was Lugi, had funny-colored hair. Blond bangs and black, spiky hair with red tips. Mana thought it was… what's the word for it? Cool? He also had pretty eyes as well. So purple, like amethyst. It was unfair that he got pretty eyes _and_ nice hair…

"You look a lot like someone we know," he noted. She smiled at him.

"I get that a lot. I think it's because of all my stupid-looking hair-" Lugi frowned at her.

"I don't think it's stupid," he protested quietly. Mana laughed, waving a hand off.

"Don't be silly, Lugi-"

"My name's Yugi," the boy said. Though he didn't say it in the kind of jerky way that made people totally embarrassed with even making such a slip-up. Nevertheless, Mana reddened at her mistake.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" she gasped. "My grandma says I talk way too much sometimes and then don't even hear what people say to me. Though, I think she's just saying that because she's old and everything because I don't think I talk that much. But then there are times when I feel like I do talk too much and start rambling on about something that had nothing to-"

Mana stopped herself, her apologetic smile disappearing. There she was- rambling again. Her grandmother had been right after all.

"Anyway, I'm sorry about the thing with your name." Yugi gave a small chuckle, amethyst eyes gleaming with amusement.

"It's fine."

"So, you said I look like some you know?" The only girl of the group of four spoke up, a friendly smile seemingly permanently stuck on her face, as if with dried Play-Doh. It made Mana feel welcomed.

"Yeah," she said. "Do you know anything about ancient Egypt?" The girl- whose name escaped Mana's memory- had the eyes of sapphires, deep blue. Often a rival for the favorite of eye color. _Plus_ she had that nice, lustrous brunette hair that laid down flat when suppose to. Mana envied this girl's hair.

But, at the girl's words, Mana frowned. Ancient Egypt? She hated history and it was quite often difficult to maintain a passing grade in there; every history teacher she had put her to sleep. Why would she know anything about ancient Egypt? She barely knew the history of where she got her favorite lip gloss…

"Erm, well," Mana hesitated, unwilling to admit her stupidity to her newfound friends. "To tell you the truth, not really. It's not that I don't find the Leaning Tower of Pizza interesting, it's just that history-" Mana stopped herself again, catching the confused gazes of the four around her. She felt her face growing red with embarrassment once more. "Did I say something stupid again?" she asked.

"Well," the sapphire girl hesitated, as though unwilling to hurt her feelings. "The Leaning Tower of Pizza is in Italy. Egypt was famous for the pyramids." Mana forced a smile, laughing at her self and unable to rid the blush on her face.

"Pizza, Pyramids- that's what I meant. It's easy to get them confused considering they both start with the same letter." The girl smiled down at her- Mana also envied the girl for her height- and gave a laugh as well.

With this introduction of Egypt, all four started delving into a hard-to-follow conversation about how they somehow went back in time to see ancient Egypt to help some pharaoh who was locked in a pyramid-shape piece of jewelry that Yugi wore around his neck but wasn't currently wearing after it had been destroyed in some sort of card game. Or, something to that nature. Mana was finding it very hard to follow and understand the magical things they were explaining. With all the villains, jewelry, ancient spirits, and monsters they were describing, Mana found herself lost in a myriad web of confusion.

"So, basically," Yugi said, his eyes aglow with his interest in the topic, "When we were in ancient Egypt, we met someone who is almost exactly like you. Even her name was Mana!" he exclaimed when they had reached the end of their tale.

"That's…" Mana started, unsure of whether she should accept this truth of magic or admit to herself that her new friends belonged to a loony house. "That's kind of amazing," she said slowly. "I've never heard of anything like that before."

She paused, unsure of how to continue this conversation of which she had no knowledge of. After a moment, she decided to pull her infamous change-the-subject-technique-when-one-was-confused maneuver. It worked eighty-nine percent of the time. The number, of course, was not an actual statistic but rather randomly chosen for the sake of Mana sounding smart to herself.

"So… tell me your names again? I only remember Yugi's and I'm really bad when it comes to names." Thankfully, they accepted this topic switch with good grace.

The girl's name was Téa, spelled like the beverage "tea" with the exception of the strange little marking on top of the _e_. There was another male, named Tristan, who had eyes and hair the color of chocolate. His hair was quite a thing to behold, styled meticulously into a single point. As Mana gazed at it, she couldn't help but wonder how long it took him to fix it that way in the mornings. She resisted the urge in asking, not wanting to seem rude. The final boy was tall, lanky, and held a strange dialect. His enormously shaggy hair was blond and his eyes were the color of amber. He had the name of Joey. And Joey reminded her an awful lot of a golden retriever. So much, that she had suppress the compelling impulse to reach up and pet him.

"Well, it's nice to meet you," Mana said brightly. "I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't invited me over to your lunch table. I'd probably be still wandering around, trying to find a place to sit."

"You're welcome," said Tristan, the one with the pointy hair. It was at that moment that the bell, signaling for the next class, rang. With this harbinger, Mana's smile disappeared again and she suddenly began digging in her bag, looking for her schedule and map of the school.

"Oh no," she mumbled to herself, audible to the rest of them. "Oh no, I hate it when this happens. I'm going to be _late_. I have no idea where anything is-"

"Maybe we can help," Téa offered, hovering over her. "What class do you have next?"

"I think it's Geometry," Mana said, finally able to extract her schedule. "Whoops! My mistake, Geometry was my last class. Now I have World History." Mana gave an internal groan.

"Well, the World History is classroom next to my English Literature class," Joey said. "I can show you the way, if you want." Mana beamed at him, grateful she wouldn't spend the next thirty minutes walking in aimless circles.

"That would be great!" Mana exclaimed. "Thanks!" Joey gave her an amused smile and turned to lead the way.

"See you later, Mana," Yugi said. Mana glanced behind to wave goodbye to him and Téa.

"See you!" she called before hurrying after Joey.

Joey led her out of the school's cafeteria and through the many halls interspersed throughout the school. While she was keeping as close as she could to Joey, Mana couldn't help but wonder how she managed to find the cafeteria in the first place without winding up on the other side of the school.

Eventually, they made it to a separate adjoining hallway that held only a few select classrooms. Joey turned to her and pointed to the one at the farthest end of the hall.

"That one, right there, is your World History class. Mine's just right there." The pointing of his finger transferred from her classroom to his own, which happened to be two doors closer than hers. Mana nodded taking this.

"So, thank-" Mana began, expressing her gratitude. She was, however, cut off by a more cold, emotionless voice.

"Look who it is," that icy voice chided from behind her. "Does someone not know where their classroom is?" Mana guessed that the voice was suppose to be condescending but the end result only made them sound bored, as if dealing with a petulant child. Joey's face turned visibly red with anger as he balled his hands into tight fists.

"Butt out, Kaiba," he said in a hard voice, full of contempt and anger compared to the emotionless Kaiba person. Mana turned to see just who this Kaiba person was. And what she saw… amazed her.

Kaiba was tall. Gigantic, especially when compared to her own shortness. But, as far as any normal height standards went, he was pretty tall. And, in her own opinion, pretty attractive with his chestnut brown hair and icy blue eyes. And, the school uniform did nothing to hide the muscularity of his chest. Heck, even the ugly _uniform_ managed to look slightly less repulsive than it did on other male students of the general student body.

His face hardened, which only made him more breathtakingly handsome, in Mana's opinion.

"Calm down Wheeler," he said with what one could only assume was forced patience. "I was just wanting to inform you that you're in my way." Kaiba paused, gaze shifting from Joey's angry form and down to Mana's wide-eyed curious gaze. "And who is this, your girlfriend?" Mana couldn't help but feel her face flush with red indignation.

"No!" Joey snapped defensively. "She's new here and I was jus' helping her out-"

"That's nice," Kaiba said, cutting across his words and rolling his eyes as if what Joey said wasn't nice at all. "But the fact stands that you're still in my way." Joey seemed to be audibly growling his irritation at what was the inconsiderate jerk and, with a stiff movement, side-stepped out of the way. Mana, on the other hand- attempting her default method at flirting with innocence, allowed a wide smile to light her face as she eagerly hopped to the side.

"I'm sorry," she said, smile still on her face. Kaiba only allowed her a single, eyebrow-arched glance that could have been mistaken for a glare before acting as though she didn't exist or as if she was merely paint on the wall. His cold countenance didn't dampen her spirits, however, it only enthralled her to extremity as she stared, unblinking, at his swiftly disappearing back as he swept into the World History classroom Joey had pointed out.

"Who was _that_?" Mana asked incredulously to Joey who seemed unable to escape his bad temperament.

"Seto Kaiba," he hissed to her under his breath. "Mr. Fancy Pants CEO of Kaiba Corp. Thinks he's better than everyone else."

"I can't blame him," Mana said, gaze still locked on the space where Kaiba had previously been. "Did you _see_ the way he wears that uniform?" Joey remained silent so Mana was forced to look up at him and saw his eyebrow that was arched like Kaiba's.

"Well, you just saw Kaiba go into the World History room," Joey said awkwardly, clearly uncomfortable to be in close proximity with someone who fell instantaneously for Kaiba's physical appearance. "See you later," he said, turning around to walk to his own class.

"Bye!" Mana called to him before eagerly skipping to her classroom, thrilled at the idea of having a class with Seto Kaiba.

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There you go! I hope you enjoyed and hopefully I'll be able to update this sooner than others. Please review, as well! I'd probably be more willing to update with some encouragement!

**_-NuiSongeur_**


	2. Preoccupied

**A/N:** Here it is! Chapter two! Sorry it took so long. Edit: The formatting messed up slightly. Sorry for the inconvenience.

**Warnings:** Account for probable typos.

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**Chapter Two: Preoccupied  
**By: Nuit Songeur

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Mana eagerly stepped into the classroom and her green eyes quickly zoned in on the tall figure sitting at the back. She giggled quietly behind her binder she was holding protectively in front of her face. But, she then remembered that she was supposed to have a slip of paper signed by all of her new teachers since it was her first day. Her gaze transferred from the empty desk beside Seto and then to a tall, balding man sitting at a desk in the front of the room. She quickly rushed to the teacher, hoping that if she got the introduction with him over fast enough, then she could claim that desk as her own before any one else did.

Though, in her haste, she didn't pay much attention to her surroundings. So, as can be imagined, the leg of the corner desk went unnoticed as her toe caught itself in the bar, sending Mana to the floor with a loud crash, just inches away from the teacher's desk. Concerned, the teacher quickly rose from his chair and bent over to help her to her feet.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"I'm fine, fine," Mana stammered, her face turning a nice, bright cherry color as she nervously brushed off her skirt. "I tripped, is all. I'm a bit of klutz and I don't really pay attention to where I'm going. By the way, I'm a new student. I was told to get something signed by you…" Mana quickly fumbled through her bag, hearing curious whispers erupt from newly-occupied desks. It made her ears match her face. When she found the small thing, she handed it to the teacher and began combing her fingers through her hair.

"Mana?" he said. Mana nodded. "Well, welcome Mana. As you've probably figured out by now, this is the World History class. I'm your teacher, Mr. Peterson. I give new students the option of whether or not they want to introduce themselves to the class though, judging from the color of your face, I would say you'd rather opt out of that?"

Mana nodded anxiously.

"Very well. Just chose anywhere to sit; I don't have assigned seats. Just pick any desk you want and I'll give you your syllabus of the class in a few minutes along with this week's notes. Quickly now! Before the vultures take the seat you want!" He turned away from her to return to his desk and Mana couldn't help but smile at his sense of humor. _Maybe he will make history more interesting… _she thought to herself.

When she turned back around, Mana saw to her relief that the desk she had been eyeing earlier, beside Seto, was still vacant and she quickly went to take it, making sure this time there weren't any pesky desks blocking her way. She slid into it gratefully and deposited her binder in the basket beneath the seat. She set her bag on the floor beside her and, cautiously eyed Seto sitting next to her, worried that her tripping performance messed up his first impression of her. However, he wasn't looking in her direction but rather drilled his attention into a book he was reading.

Mana suppressed the urge to sigh. He was one of those bookish types? It would be hard to find common ground with him…

Normally, she would have said something to him. But, at the moment, she was still too embarrassed from before and also, he seemed a bit intimidating when he was reading a book. Had the 'Interrupt me while I'm reading and you shall DIE!' kind of looks. Mana didn't like disturbing that type of person; she'd done it enough many times to know that it wasn't a pleasant experience.

But she had to say _something_ to him, get him to notice her, _somehow_…

"I see you're one of _those_ types of people," said Mr. Peterson, breaking across her thoughts. Startled, Mana looked up, realizing too late that she had been staring at Seto. She blinked at Mr. Peterson, her mind drawing up a blank of what to say.

"What?" she simply asked. An amused grin crossed his face.

"You know- the kind that sits at the back. The bad influence. No, I'm just kidding. I understand wanting to sit at the back what with being a new student and some-" his eyes flickered to Seto. "distractions."

Mana's face, which had just returned to its normal color, reddened once again as Mr. Peterson handed her some papers.

"These are pretty simple to understand. The syllabus outlines classroom procedure and the sections we're studying this semester. We're currently on the Babylonians, hence the notes. If you're having any trouble at all, feel free to contact me for help."

Mana nodded, bobbing her head quickly. Mr. Peterson gave her a small encouraging smile and returned to his desk. Mana took refuge behind a binder as she stuffed the papers Mr. Peterson handed her in one of its pockets. She kept the binder standing up on her desk, acting as a potential fort to any curious eyes that wanted to see the awkward new student.

All the while, she managed to sneak in a few glances at the gorgeous student sitting next to her. He didn't look to be the type that was interested in small talk which would pose as a problem later on since that was what Mana generally did to get to know people better.

"Oh," she sighed to herself, looking away from him. His penetrating gaze was trained solely on the book he was reading. He wouldn't even look at her! What made her think that _he _would ever be interested in _her_? The frizzy-haired, annoying new girl? She didn't have a chance with him…

Mana had to get a grip on herself. She knew herself only be pessimistic when she experienced humiliation, such as tripping in front of the class. By tomorrow, she would be her normal perky self that was ready engage Seto Kaiba into an interesting, casual conversation. She would capture his attention and exchange phone numbers and email addresses…

Who was she kidding? Seto Kaiba exchange phone numbers? Seto freakin' Kaiba? Was she really that naïve to believe that? He would just look at her like she was crazy, like she was an annoying pest who didn't know any better. He'd probably only see her as the girl who tripped over a desk and have that event forever attached to her face. Who would be interested in a _klutz_? Definitely not Seto Kaiba.

The bell rang, startling Mana out of her depressing thoughts. She looked up to see that the all the other desk in the room were filled; she made it in time to claim the one next to Seto. A few students glanced at her. When she made eye contact with someone, Mana quickly dodged behind the still-upright binder. Mr. Peterson started the lesson by showing off a map on an overhead projector, turning off the lights as he pointed to various locations on the map.

Mana stressed for the rest of the class period, not only about the Seto situation but also because people kept turning back around to stare at her. It make her self-conscious. Did she had some left-over food on her face from lunch? She surreptitiously wiped her mouth on her arm but found nothing. Did she mess up on her eyeliner that morning then? After digging through her bag and pulling out her small hand mirror to inspect her face, Mana concluded that nothing of her make-up status was out of character. So what then? Were they astounded at her abnormally frizzy hair? She scanned the heads around her. None of them had the same level of frizzy-ness. So were they curious about her hair? Or, were they talking about her tripping from earlier?

Mana sighed, sinking lower into her chair to avoid more inquisitive gazes. _What an awesome first day,_ she thought sarcastically.

The map Mr. Peterson was showing was on the back of the page of notes he had handed to her. And the all the cities he was annotating were already marked on her map. So, she decided to pull out her Geometry homework, a worksheet on angles, rather than pay attention.

She tapped her pencil rhythmically on the desk at a steady beat that gradually gained speed with her agitation for math. _I don't get this_…

Mana didn't notice the heads beginning to turn in her direction as the furious tapping disrupted Mr. Peterson's lesson. Mr. Peterson, however, didn't hear it, or rather, just ignored it. But, unbeknownst to Mana, she finally managed to get Seto Kaiba's attention as his eyes narrowed at the pencil she was tapping with. He had began to become aggravated at her distraction and, out of desperation, scribbled a note on a piece of paper, wadded it up, and tossed it to her desk.

Mana gave a small jump of surprise as the paper wad skidded across her desk, stopping at the edge of her binder. She looked at the direction it had come from and saw Kaiba staring at her. He expression was blank and his eyes were cold. Mana felt herself flinch away from his as she picked up the paper and unfurled it. It was a note that read:

_Stop the incessant tapping. It's annoying. And if you don't want to pay attention in class, then don't draw attention to yourself. _

Mana frowned at the handwriting, neat and slanted. She didn't know she had been drawing attention to herself. Then again, her grandmother did say quite often that she was particularly unobservant.

"Sorry," she whispered to Kaiba, folding his note up.

"Hn," was all he said, or grunted actually, before turning his attention back to the front of the class. Mana blankly stared at him for a moment before turning back to her work sheet.

How rude! And mean! Did he not have any sense for manners or politeness or _decency_? What was wrong with him? Just because he thought he was the King of the World didn't mean he had to act like a snobbish jerk!

Mana felt tears creeping to her eyes and tried to rub them away angrily on her school uniform sleeve. She sniffed which, to her dismay, caused several heads to turn. She ducked behind the binder. _What an awful day! And I've got gym next period!_

Mana waited out the rest of the class time, staring gloomily at her Geometry homework. She didn't work on it anymore, just stared at the triangles that 'weren't to scale' as she tried very hard not to cry. It was just a rude, inconsiderate jerk sitting beside her… She shouldn't get so worked up… Eventually, the bell rang, signaling her reprieve and the lights were immediately switched back on. Kids around her started to quickly gather their books.

"No homework for tonight except to read the next section. I plan on giving a quiz tomorrow," called out Mr. Peterson before anyone left. There was a unison groan from the majority of the class as they began filing out. Mana was one of the many to groan as she stuffed the papers back into her binder and her binder back into her bag. When she got up to leave, she saw that everyone else had left and then shuffled miserably out of the room.

She saw Joey waiting for her out in the hall. She blinked at him, surprised that he was waiting for _her_.

"Hi Joey," she said.

"Hey," he said. "I though you could use some help finding your next class." He smiled at her, obviously forgiving her sin of ogling Kaiba. She smiled back at him.

"Thanks. I think I have gym next." She searched her bag for her schedule to make sure. "Yep. Gym." She mentally groaned.

"It's okay," he said. "If I'm not wrong, Téa has gym this period too." Mana felt a little more relieved. At least she would be seeing one somewhat familiar face in there.

She followed Joey down and toward what seemed to be like back to the cafeteria. After they pushed their way through throngs of rude people, Mana saw that they were passing the cafeteria. She briefly glanced at the double doors and then quickly turned her attention back to Joey. But, for some reason, he suddenly stopped. And Mana accidentally bumped into him.

"Oops, sorry," Mana apologized, blushing fiercely. Joey turned around to her, not having noticed her collision or apology.

"Here's the gym," he said. "I don't think the coach will make you dress out or participate today but, you never know. So, be prepared for the worst." Mana anxiously peered around him. Dress out? She would have to dress out?

"Oh, um, thanks Joey," she said uncertainly. She saw him nod from the corner of her eye and leave her there, standing awkwardly in front of the double doors. She lifted a hand and, pausing for just a moment, pushed open a door.

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Hope you enjoyed! I'll try to get chapter three in sooner. Please review!

_**-NuitSongeur**_


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